Religious Language

Religious Language

1. TYPES OF LANGUAGE

   • COGNITIVE
     • Realist language deals with factual information which can be proved to be true or false.
   • NON-COGNITIVE
     • Anti-realist statements which are to be understood in other ways than factually.

2. THE VERIFICATION PRINCIPLE

   • Came from the Vienna Circle, who applied science to language, and argued that language has to be based on experience and verifiable through our senses.
     • In order to be meaningful a statement must be one of the following things:
       • ANALYTIC - true by definition
       • MATHEMATICAL - if there is an error in the statement, it can be seen easily.
       • SYNTHETIC - Can be verified or falsified through empirical testing
   • CRITICISMS
     • Unverifiable opinions or emotions become meaningless - love.
     • Ethical and moral statements are also meaningless - do not kill
     • The laws of science cannot be comepletely verifed
     • Hostorical statements are meaningless - no sense experience
     • Verification principle itself cannot be verified as there is no sense experience to verify it

3. THE FALSIFICATION PRINCIPLE

   • Concerned with not what makes something true, but with what makes something false.
     • HICK - In order to say something which may be possibly true, we must say something which may be possibly false
     • FLEW - claimed that any positive claim we make assumes that we deny its negation. Argued that language is only meaningful if we can concieve of some evidence which might count against it.
       • The problem with God talk is that it often implies that it could never be falsified.
     • R.M HARE - Created the term 'bliks' to describe a non-rational belief which could never be falsified. They are not necessarily untrue, but the are groundless.

4. HOW IS RELIGIOUS LANGUAGE USED?

   • UNIVOCAL - using words in the everyday sense. To know human love and to know of Gods love makes love the same thing and we can therefore understand God better.
     • X - Leads to anthropomorphism
   • EQUIVOCAL - The same word is used with a totally different meaning or in a vague way. We can stress the distinctiveness of Gods qualities and avoid anthropomorphism.
     • X - Once again makes it difficult to understand God.

5. ANALOGY

   • A compromise, offers a way to resolve the problems caused by UNIVOCAL & EQUIVOCAL language
     • AQUINAS believes that analogy allows us to reason about God by using words in a non literal way. We can compare things to God to describe Gods nature. This is his belief in 'gradation to be found in things' - all goodness and love came from God originally so we are analogously related to him; we can understand God through human quality comparisons.
       • ANALOGY OF PROPORTIONALITY
         • The view that all good qualities belong to God and in proportion to humans. A plant has life -- Humans have life -- God has life = a proportionate relationship. This allows us to begin to understand Gods nature.
       • ANALOGY OF ATTRIBUTION
         • The view that God is the cause of all good things in humans and that his attributes are at a higher level than our own.

6. SYMBOLIC LANGUAGE

   • A symbol is something that identifies a concept that it is referring to and participates with the meaning of that concept. Symbols express what the believer feels about what that symbol conveys. Can be pictures, objects or words.
     • They are always non-cognitive language; like Jesus saying 'I am the light of the world'. They should not be taken literally as they convey meaning beyond what is factual and objective.
   • CRITICISMS
     • The original meaning of the symbol can be lost (businesses working on Sundays).
     • Symbols can become the focus of worship (the relics of saints).
     • Can be seen as outdated (calling god Father is seen as patriarchal in a modern society).

7. MYTH

   • Uses symbols, metaphors and imagery. It is a story or narrative that expresses a truth when it is not known for certain what actually happened. They try to explain the unexplainable and to provide insights into human experience.
     • An example is Noah's Ark.
     • In religious terms, the purpose of myths are to convey concepts which go beyond simple ideas of true and false and try to express something other worldly.
   • CRITICISMS
     • Outdated concept dealing with anachronistic concepts
     • STRAUSS suggests that we should shift focus from the retelling of a miraculous occurrence to a story of a miraculous occurrence
     • BULTMANN argued that to find out the truth about God, religious language be demythologised because it is impossible for humanity in modern times to believe such stories.
     • DAWKINS describes the Bibles as 'just plain weird'.

8. LANGUAGE GAMES

   • Wittgenstein advocated a functional theory of meaning; words and language are part of an anti-realist approach to language.
     • Argued that language statements are not intended to be true or false for everyone, but only those who are within that form of life.
       • Language is therefore a game - all forms of life have their own language and their own rules about meaning. This language is non-cognitive - it is not about making universally true statements but about communicating meaning to other players of that game.
         • The player of one game cannot criticise the language another player from a different game uses or enter a new game without first learning the rules and conventions of that new game (its criteria of coherence). When language is heard and misunderstood because you are not int that game, this is called a category mistake , and this is what happens when unbelievers try to understand religion.
   • STRENGTHS
     • Highlights the non-cognitive nature of religious language.
     • Distinguishes between types of language.
     • Provides boundaries for the correct use of language.
     • Believers can be initiated into the rules of language.
   • WEAKNESSES
     • Language games do not allow for believers' claims to be empirically tested.
     • Religious language alienates those outside the game.
     • The rules of the game cannot be changed to allow outsiders in.